MCS Board going for waiver to keep charter schools at bay

MUNCIE – Muncie Community Schools is moving forward with a request for a waiver to keep the Wilson Middle School building out of the hands of charter schools.

At Thursday night’s board meeting, members gave administration permission to pursue the waiver from the Indiana Department of Education, which would keep the school off of the charter school surplus list. If it was placed on the list, a charter school could potentially buy the building for $1.

The district’s new Chief Financial Officer, Chip Mehaffey, gave the board members a rundown of what will happen next.

The district will submit the waiver to the IDOE, which — if accepted — will have five days to notify charter school sponsors and statewide organizations that represent charter schools of the waiver. A charter school then has 30 days to submit a “qualified objection to the waiver,” Mehaffey said, which basically means any objection.

If the objection is accepted by the IDOE, the charter school must be able to provide instruction in that building within one year. If there are not any objections, Mehaffey said, the district can move forward “to do what we desire with the building.”

Mehaffey noted that because of the large size of the building and the cost of operation, it is unlikely that any charter school would be interested.

Mehaffey said the cost of mothballing the building for the district will be about $109,000 a year. That breaks down to about $25,000 for insurance premiums; $5,000 in manpower to maintain facility (including snow removal and lawn care); $3,500 in security (cameras and other monitoring systems) and about $75,000 for utilities.

MCS Supt. Tim Heller offered some comments at the start of the meeting, mostly consisting of ways the district could potentially bring in some money.

The land at Southside High School has been surveyed and an appraisal is expected within the “next two to three weeks,” Heller said. This area (29th Street and Macedonia Avenue) consists of about four acres.

Although there has been recent talk of McDonald’s being interested in the spot, Heller said “we have not made a decision as to what to with that land, if we do anything.”

“The board will make that decision collectively,” he said.

He added that there is also some interest in some of the Wilson Middle School property — the corner of Cornbread Road and Tillotson Avenue. He said the board “might want to consider” having it appraised as well.

He also mentioned that companies are “pushing” the district about whether it is interested in placing cell towers on school properties. Mehaffey said that a cell tower can generate about $13,000 a year for the district, with a five percent increase every five years.

The district currently has one located at Central High School near the levee.

Board President Tony Costello later pointed out that the board will carefully consider the potential issues that might be caused by the towers, including neighbors unhappy with the large structures or possible health concerns.

Heller said 10 architecture firms have submitted proposals for the the district’s big facility study, requested by the board. Now, he said, the board will need to provide some “direction” on the selection process.

After the meeting, Costello said the study will be two-fold. One would be an overall look at energy usage at every building. The other would be a detailed look at Northside Middle School, which has not seen any upgrades, he said, since it was built in the 1970s.

In other board business:

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Beasley & Gilkison was retained as the board’s general legal adviser for the 2014-15 school year.

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Max Rudicel, through Open Door Health Services, was approved as the district’s physician for the 2014-15 school year.

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The board passed the budget reductions resolution of about $4 million to reflect circuit breaker losses. The funds impacted will be the capital projects fund ($2,434,794), transportation fund ($1,567,402) and the bus replacement fund ($23,355).

“It’s money we were supposed to get but because of tax caps, we will never see it,” Mehaffey said.